Urbego Urban Pockets
URBEGO means city-metropolis in Esperanto, and it is a multidisciplinary platform for young, motivated and skilled professionals from all around the globe. The Urban Pocket program has been launched by URBEGO in 2014, with the aim of developing a co-creation strategy for reclaiming public spaces in different cities around the world. The first phase of the program saw URBEGO interacting with local partners and communities in different Balkan cities, with the first community pocket park implemented in Tirana in 2015.
In the program, Urbego operates contemporary at different scales. At a local level, it engages local communities of residents, helping them to take control of the open spaces around/between the places where they live. At a global scale, it provides a platform for sharing and transferring knowledge and expertises, acting as an intermediary between small organisations and international funders, as well as providing visibility to local projects in international contexts such as conferences and exhibitions.
Urban Pockets acts at a micro scale in places such as courtyards, neglected communal spaces, backyards, parking lots, or wherever dysfunctional design, lack of resources or interest have produced redundant open spaces. Rather than replicating a fixed set of spatial solutions, Urban Pockets provides a methodology for the implementation of site-specific interventions, with Urbego expertises active on helping local communities in designing, financing, implementing and managing their projects. This extended program of micro-interventions not only offers a cost-effective strategy of creating and maintaining community open spaces, but due to its co-creation approach, it represents an effective way to address some of the problems of urban living, such as isolation and social exclusion, by enhancing local identities and sense of belonging to a common place.
For more information, visit us at www.urbego.org!
Giulia Maci is an urban planner in Copenhagen. She is one of the developers of the program and is constantly active in raising funds, as well as maintaining contacts with existing and new partners.
Farah Makki is an architect in Paris. She has been part of the program from its conception phase and has been following the implementation of the first intervention in Tirana.
Simone Gobber is an architect and urban designer in London. He took part to Urbego’s interventions in Belgrade and Skopje, as well as contributing to the overall methodology.
Filipa Pajevic is an economist in Montreal. She is one of the initiators of Urban Pockets, contributing in establishing connections in the Balkans, as well as defining the financial scheme for the interventions.
Carla Felicetti is a graphic designer in Venice. She contributed to the layout of the graphic material that allows Urbego to promote the program in different cities, as well as engaging new partners and communities for new projects.
